PITTSBURGH, PA, May 1, 2009 - N.A. Water Systems, a Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS) company, announced today the award of a patent for its AMDRO™ technology, a reverse osmosis (RO) process for treatment of acidic wastewater. This process is particularly applicable to the mining and fertilizer production industries. In mining, AMDRO can be used to clean up acid mine drainage for discharge. For the fertilizer industry, it can be applied not only to clean up phosphate pond water for discharge, but also to recover phosphoric acid for use in the production process.
The process significantly reduces the cost for water treatment chemicals and sludge disposal as compared to the conventional approach. The technology has low capital cost, and incorporates effective scaling control to minimize the cleaning frequency for the RO membranes.
The patented process includes VWS' proprietary ACTIFLO® clarification technology and media filtration for pretreatment, followed by a double-pass RO and ion exchange polishing to produce a treated water stream suitable for discharge and reuse. The key to the technology is the operation of the pretreatment and the first-pass reverse osmosis process under acidic conditions to inhibit the precipitation of scale-forming compounds.
The technology will be introduced in the VWS booth at the Canadian Institute of Mining Conference and Exposition in Toronto, Canada, May 10 - 13.
Company Information N.A.Water Systems is a provider of solutions for air, water and wastewater issues ranging from regulatory compliance assistance to complete turnkey installation of treatment systems. With expertise based on 99 years of experience and a staff of approximately 130 employees, N.A. Water Systems meets the needs of both industrial and municipal customers. N.A. Water Systems is a Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies company.
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies is the technological subsidiary of Veolia Water. Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS), which includes seven subsidiaries in North America (Biothane, Crown Solutions, HPD, John Meunier, Kruger, N.A. Water Systems, and Whittier Filtration), is a world leader in engineering and technological solutions in water treatment for industrial companies and municipal authorities. VWS is also one of the world's major design-build providers of water and wastewater treatment facilities. Present in more than 57 countries, with 8900 employees, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies had revenues of $3.7 billion in 2008. VEOLIA WATER, the water division of Veolia Environnement, is the world leader in water services. Veolia Water specializes in managing water services outsourced by municipal authorities, industry and tertiary sector companies. Veolia Water operates in 57 countries, serves 139 million people, employs 93,400 employees, and had revenues of $18.6 billion in 2008.